Category Archives: Announcements & News

Announcements and news on technologies

WebEx Upgrade Tonight: September 3, 2014

Posted on by

Cisco has scheduled an upgrade to WebEx, our web conferencing service, tonight, Wednesday, September 3, 2014. The upgrade will take place between 9:00 p.m. September 3 and 2:00 a.m. September 4 (Central Standard Time).

Upon entering a WebEx session after the upgrade, all meeting hosts and attendees will be asked to download a new version of the WebEx Meeting Center software. Users should follow the prompts to download and install the software on their computer. Once the software has been installed, the user will be required to restart their web browser.

Here are several of the new WebEx features users will enjoy:

  • New user interface with modern look and feel.
  • New “WebEx ball” icon.
  • New icons and panels with consolidated controls and “Quick Start” tabs.
  • Users can now resize the video pane.
  • Introduction of “Collaboration Meeting Rooms.”
  • Ability to allow a host to leave a meeting without being required to end the meeting.
  • The host role can be automatic transferred.

Please see Cisco’s “What’s new on WebEx Meetings?” video and “What’s New Cheat Sheet” to learn more about the new WebEx Web Conferencing service.

We recommend that users allow extra time to become familiar with the new interface before entering into a WebEx meeting.

The ICIT Technology Training team is in the process of updating UW-Whitewater documentation to reflect the changes. Revised information will be posted to our campus WebEx service web page as soon as possible.

TurningPoint 5 Clicker Updates

Posted on by

TP ConceptAs the Fall semester approaches, we wanted to let you know about several new changes to our Clicker software.

During the summer, we upgraded to TurningPoint 5. With this new version of TurningPoint, Turning Technologies has taken its available clicker software, such as TurningPoint, TurningPoint Anywhere, Results Manager, etc., and combined it into one singular program. Along with this change, some of the common processes you may have used to conduct your clicker sessions have changed slightly or have had their locations changed. Please see our What’s New in TurningPoint 5 wiki page for more details.

With this upgrade, we were also able to implement Clicker integration with D2L. This integration allows students to register their clicker keypad or ResponseWare license through D2L and allows you to retrieve participant lists through D2L as well. For steps on how students register their clickers, please see the TurningPoint 5: Registering Your Clicker wiki page. For steps on how to retrieve a participant list, please see the TurningPoint 5: Retrieving a Participant List wiki page.

Turning Technologies also migrated ResponseWare accounts during the summer, and if you didn’t receive an email with a migration link from them to the email account you used to register, you will need to use the Forgot Password link on their site to get a new link. For more detailed information on this, please visit our ReponseWare Migration blog post.

As a reminder, if you haven’t done so already, please stop by the Learning Technology Center (McGraw, room 120) to swap out your old clicker hardware (receivers, clicker keypads, etc.) for a new kit as soon as possible. The old hardware is NOT compatible with the latest version of TurningPoint.

We still have plenty of kits for the current user group and for several new users if there is interest. To see what the new receiver looks like compared to the old one, see our previous Clicker update blog post.

If you have any questions on TurningPoint 5 or clickers, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

ResponseWare Account Migration

Posted on by

ResponseWare LogoDuring the summer, Turning Technologies updated their ResponseWare service, and because of the change, all ResponseWare accounts need to be migrated over to the new service.

If you’ve previously signed up for a ReponseWare account, you would have received an email from Turning Technologies to the email address you used during the sign up (most likely your UW-W email account). The email will include a link to follow to migrate your ResponseWare account.

If you haven’t received an email from Turning Technologies to migrate your account, you can visit the Account page for ResponseWare and click the Forgot Password link. Do NOT make a new account from this page. Enter in the email address you used to register for a ResponseWare account in the forgot password screen, and you’ll receive a new email with a link to migrate your account.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the ResponseWare migration, please contact the Learning Technology Center.

Desire2Learn Service Update (7/31)

Posted on by

On Thursday, July 31st, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 7 and 8 to our D2L Learning Environment. In this latest update, the following fixes were included:

Quizzes

  • If Question Library contains thousands of questions, attempting to delete hundreds of questions simultaneously no longer result in an error.
  • Previously, when users paged through the responses to a question that has more responses than other questions, the system remembered the page number they were on, and when they returned to the list of questions to grade a different question with fewer responses, the system brought users to a blank page 1. Now, quizzes correctly display questions and responses.
  • Because the same question cannot be imported into a Question Library more than once, an error page now appears to explain to users why some questions were not imported successfully.
  • The Equation Editor option now opens correctly when users open the HTML Editor in a pop-up window in Question Library and select it.
  • When editing quiz question types, users can now successfully delete answers with empty value fields without encountering an error.

Dropbox

  • Users working in Chrome browsers can now upload files to Dropbox folders successfully.
  • Instructors now remain on the Evaluation page for a user they evaluate after they click Publish, Update, or Revert. Previously, clicking these actions would automatically take instructors to the next student, and often instructors who were not aware of the change assumed their feedback wasn’t saved successfully and mistakenly do the evaluation again for a different student.
  • Dropbox now accepts submissions with file names that contain a period ending. For example, a Microsoft Word document called “MySubmission.” will upload successfully as “MySubmission..docx”.

Content

  • The Content tool no longer automatically adjusts the Due Date or End Date for a module or topic when a user edits a Start Date or Due Date. The date and time associated with a Start Date, Due Date, or End Date will only change if they are explicitly set and saved. A validation message will appear to users when they set an end date to occur before a Due Date. Validation checks to ensure that the Due Date and End Date are after the Start Date still apply.
  • Uploading a file with a name that is identical to an existing topic file now updates the topic successfully and no longer causes the creation of a new topic too.

Import/Export/Copy Components

  • An error no longer occurs when copying a course with Dropbox folders that contain special access.
  • Course files with commas in their names now copy successfully to new courses and an error no longer occurs. For example, a course file with the name “Module1,Reading1” now copies successfully through the “Copy selected components” or “Copy all components” workflow.

Discussions: If you attempt to export User Statistics from the Discussions Statistics/User tab, you will now get Discussion Statistics instead of Forums and Topics.

Grades: Instead of sorting by internal UserId and ignoring “Key Field”, the grades export file now correctly sorts by “Key Field” as set by the user.

Calendar

  • Calendar events that include YouTube videos now display the video correctly when users read the events from the Agenda view.
  • User interface changes were made to the List view’s “Filter By” activity type control. The changes include fixing wrapping issues that caused the control to wrap across three lines, and the “X” icon is now replaced with the words “Clear all filters” to improve usability.

Competencies: Copying courses with a large number of competencies that have associated quizzes no longer results in a timeout.

User Progress: The system table holding user login history was restructured to prevent slowness in login and querying.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

What’s New in D2L Version 10.3 For Students

Posted on by

Desire2Learn is scheduled for an upgrade to version 10.3. The upgrade outage will start at 9:30 PM on Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 and end at 10:30 AM on Thursday, June 5th, 2014 (all times CT).

During this upgrade, D2L will NOT be available. This outage and upgrade will greatly affect Summer courses, so please plan your course work accordingly.

In addition, Learn@UW has scheduled server maintenance on Saturday, June 14th from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Desire2Learn will not be accessible during this window.

We have a “What’s New” video for students that highlights some of the changes that are coming with the upgrade.

If you have any questions about the D2L upgrade, please Contact UW-W D2L Support.

What’s New in D2L Version 10.3

Posted on by

Desire2Learn is scheduled for an upgrade to version 10.3. The upgrade outage will start at 9:30 PM on Wednesday, June 4th, 2014 and end at 10:30 AM on Thursday, June 5th, 2014 (all times CT).

During this upgrade, D2L will NOT be available. This outage and upgrade will greatly affect Summer courses, so please plan your course work accordingly. It is also suggested that you end any dropboxes, quizzes, or other deadlines a half hour before the outage’s start time (i.e., 9:00 PM CT) if there are items due on that day.

In addition, Learn@UW has scheduled server maintenance on Saturday, June 14th from 6:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Desire2Learn will not be accessible during this window.

We have a “What’s New” video for instructors that highlights some of the changes that are coming with the upgrade.

A “What’s New” wiki page is also available that covers version 10.3 tool changes in more detail, and you can visit that page here: https://geturl.uww.edu/1sk

If you have any questions about the D2L upgrade, please Contact UW-W D2L Support.

D2L eGrading Process Now Open for Spring 2014

Posted on by

The D2L eGrading process allows instructors to transfer final grades from their D2L Gradebook to their WINS Grade Roster in a few simple steps. This process is currently open and available for instructors to transfer their semester grades from D2L to WINS.

For more information on how to use this process, please see the following Instructional Resources wiki pages:

We also have a video available to guide you through the first two steps:

If you need additional assistance with your Gradebook or if you have eGrading questions, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Now Introducing: Lynda.com!

Posted on by

UW-Whitewater recently gained access to Lynda.com. Lynda.com is an extensive and valuable knowledge base of video tutorials for different kinds of technology and software. Topics covered include (but are certainly not limited to) 3D and Animation, Audio and Music, CAD, Design, Photography, Video, Web, and other specific software programs. All UW-W students, faculty, and staff have access to Lynda.com.

lynda_com screenshot

To access Lynda.com, go to http://go.uww.edu/lynda, and log in with your UW-W Net-ID and password.

Once you are logged in, you can browse the Lynda.com library or search for a topic. You can either individually watch one video tutorial at a time on a specific subject or you can watch an entire class. You can view which courses are recommended for you, create playlists of your favorite videos, or view your course history. Lynda.com is a wonderful resource that you can utilize for learning a new technology or brushing up on some rusty skills!

Desire2Learn Service Update (4/24)

Posted on by

On Thursday, April 24th, Desire2Learn Inc. deployed Service Pack 16 to our D2L Learning Environment. This will be the last service pack that is applied to our D2L instance before the upgrade to version 10.3 in June.

In this latest service pack, several performance improvements were made to tools across the Learning Environment, including navigation, Quizzes, and Content. The following fixes were also included:

Dropbox: The Dropbox folder event log now correctly records the creation and deletion of Dropbox folders performed via the Content tool.

Document Viewer: PDF documents containing math equations with negative signs are now converted and displayed in Content or Dropbox correctly.

Calendar: If Content contains a topic that is linked to course objects that are not yet available (e.g., an “Inactive” quiz, a hidden Discussion forum, etc.), but have due dates set through Content, users no longer encounter an error when attempting to access the Content or Calendar tool.

If you have any questions or concerns about the service pack updates, please contact UW-W D2L Support.